BACKGROUND
As part of the exhibition on Narcís Monturiol and his contributions to the history of submarine navigation, a sound installation that offered the sensorial experience of an underwater journey was proposed. It was 150 years since Doctor Letamendi, who accompanied Monturiol on one of his immersions, had written what is considered the first submarine chronicle in history. This text became the base and image of the musical composition and could be seen in written form as the visitor walked through the installation:

“The silence that accompanies every immersion, the gradual loss of light, the mighty water mass that the eyes can hardly penetrate, the pale effect that light has on physiognomies, the diminishing oscillations in the Ictíneo, the fish that pass in front of the window; all of it contributes to the excitement of the human imaginative faculties and reveals itself in irregular breathing and sentences. Meanwhile, the manometer indicates the depth of the descent, slowly at the beginning and then faster. On occasions when a certain depth is reached and depending on the water conditions that in favour of the natural light you cannot distinguish anything outside, only the gloom of the deep water, all sounds stop as well as any movement. It feels like nature has died and the Ictíneo has become a tomb.”

MUSIC
In order to produce the envisaged sensorial experience for the installation, work was focused mainly on the inner psychological effect rather than on recreating external environmental sounds.

SOUND PALETTE
1- Vibraphone played with double bass bow together with rubber mallets at the beginning of each note
2- Organ pedals